Abandoned By Clinton, She Finds Acceptance

By STEPHEN LABATON,

Published: July 14, 1993

Lani Guinier, the lawyer who only a month ago was jettisoned by an embarrassed President Clinton as his choice to be the Justice Department's civil rights chief, was embraced as a newfound hero today at the N.A.A.C.P.'s annual conference.

In an address to the association's delegates, Ms. Guinier criticized the Clinton Administration, Congress and most pointedly the Supreme Court, saying it has neglected to resolve racial inequalities.

Many of the things she said today she had said before. But her warm reception as the recipient of a Torch of Courage award by the association's magazine, Crisis, demonstrated that the Administration will probably have to take significant steps toward repairing its ties with one of its most important constituencies.

For the civil rights movement as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1993 has been an important year of transition, and Professor Guinier's appearance suggested that she had emerged from her failed nomination as an influential voice.
Some New Directions

Earlier this year the N.A.A.C.P, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, named a new executive director, Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., to replace Benjamin Hooks after the Rev. Jesse Jackson made an unsuccessful drive to lead the group.

And three weeks ago the Supreme Court embarked on a new course in its interpretation of the Federal Voting Rights Act. In a 5-to-4 decision the Court permitted a group of white voters to challenge a bizarrely shaped Congressional district in North Carolina that had been created to remedy past discrimination by insuring the election of a black lawmaker.

The decision in the case, Shaw v. Reno, has troubled some civil rights groups as the beginning of major erosion of the Voting Rights Act. Today it was attacked by Professor Guinier, who said it "reflects real ignorance about politics in North Carolina."

"Make no mistake about it," she said. "If this decision in Shaw versus Reno represents the mainstream in American politics, then the mainstream is polluted by ignorance and indifference. And if this means that we are outside of the mainstream, then we must change the mainstream."

In the last few days of the conference, which began on Friday, discussion has been dominated by the way the President retreated from Ms. Guinier's nomination after Republicans and some Democrats attacked her academic writings and accused her of holding radical views on minority rights.
A Fair Share of Power

She has said majority rule does not always guarantee blacks a fair share of political power, and has proposed voting schemes to enhance the power of black voters.

Speaker after speaker here endorsed Ms. Guinier and warned the White House that it would further alienate blacks if it dropped its nomination of another black woman, Joycelyn Elders, as Surgeon General. Religious and conservative groups have mounted a campaign against Dr. Elders, the Arkansas health chief who has advocated greater availability of contraceptives and sex education in schools, and better AIDS prevention programs.

On Monday, for instance, the N.A.A.C.P.'s chairman, William F. Gibson, said Mr. Clinton had "kicked us in the teeth" by abandoning Professor Guinier. When Vice President Al Gore spoke briefly, he was politely but coolly received by the audience.

In her address today and at a news conference later, Ms. Guinier avoided directly criticizing Mr. Clinton, a classmate at Yale Law School. But her praise for him was, at best, tepid.

"My view is that Bill Clinton has the capacity and compassion to be a great President, to be a racial healer, and I hope he lives up to that challenge," she said. Asked whether she had lost respect for him, she replied, "I've lost respect for the political process."
Chants at Hoosier Dome

When she was asked whether the Administration had lived up to its campaign pledges to create more opportunities for minority groups, she responded, "We'll find out, won't we?"

Ms. Guinier had barely been introduced when the thousands of delegates at the Hoosier Dome began chanting, "Lani! Lani! Lani!" as an organist played excerpts from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

The crowd applauded her observation that her treatment by the White House and Congress was a metaphor for the plight of blacks today, and that the withdrawal of her nomination, preventing her from testifying before the Senate, demonstrated that racial issues have been swept under the rug by Democrats and Republicans who are too uncomfortable to discuss them.

"I endured the personal humiliation of being vilified as a madwoman with strange hair -- you know what that means -- a strange name and strange ideas, ideas like democracy, freedom and fairness that mean all people must be equally represented in our political process," she said. "But lest any of you feel sorry for me, according to press reports the President still loves me. He just won't give me a job."

Photo: Lani Guinier criticized the Clinton Administration, Congress and the Supreme Court at the N.A.A.C.P.'s annual conference yesterday in Indianapolis. She spoke at a news conference after the convention. (Mary Ann Carter for The New York Times)